8-year-old boy dies following south Sacramento hammer attack

An 8-year-old beaten with a hammer died Wednesday afternoon, six days after the attack that also injured his mother and 7-year-old sister, police said.

Deandre Chaney Jr., 23, who previously had a relationship with the mother, is suspected of attacking them about 6:20 a.m. Friday at a home in the 3000 block of Melinda Way in south Sacramento. He was apprehended Saturday in Winnemucca, Nev., after authorities learned he was passing through the area on an Amtrak train, and is expected to be extradited to Sacramento County.

Police are not identifying the boy who died until the coroner notifies his next of kin, said Sgt. Bryce Heinlein, Sacramento Police Department spokesman.

The department’s Career Criminal Apprehension team, along with their post-release community supervision team, were able to determine through their investigation that Chaney was on a train bound for Utah, police said.

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The department requested the help of the Winnemucca Police Department to intercept Chaney during a stop in the town Friday afternoon. He escaped the train before police could apprehend him but was later found wrapped in a tarp in a shed, police said.

Chaney has an extensive criminal history and is well-known to local law enforcement, Matthew said.

In October 2016, he pleaded no contest to a charge of failing to register as a sex offender, Sacramento Superior Court records show. He also pleaded no contest to a felony battery with serious bodily injury charge in April 2014.

The earliest case filed in his name dates back to 2011, when he pleaded no contest to an assault with a deadly weapon charge, online records show. A false impersonation charge in that case was dismissed by the court.